Blogger Jeremy Cook writes "Tindie is the place you go to find bleeding edge electronics without having to wait for those products to make it all the way through the cycle. It’s like getting an inside line on knowledgable-consumer-ready prototypes of the hottest stuff.". That's why we're excited to have our first Vinduino product selling on Tindie.

Vinduino is an open source disruptive irrigation management technology. We want people, including small growers, to have affordable access to irrigation water and cost saving, without need for in-depth knowledge of electronics or extensive programming skills. That's why the Vinduino R3 sensor station board comes with the electronics components assembled and tested. Besides the board you need an enclosure, small solar panel, battery, soil sensors, and your choice of connectivity (WiFi or LoRa).
​Example programs are also available on line, and can be easily customized to support a growing number of sensors.
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​We even offer free shipping in the US! Can we make it easier? Let us know!!

For farmers with remote fields, it's critical to know the wind speed conditions before setting up the equipment and riding out to spray. Too much wind, and you cannot accurately deliver the "goodness". Basically wasting time and materials and risking contamination of the surrounding properties.​Luckily adding a wind speed sensor ( anemometer) to the Vinduino sensor station is an easy task. We used an Adafruit active anemometer with an analog output or 0.4 - 2 V. There are also passive anemometers with an intermittent contact interface, but they take time to count the rotations. I prefer the active model as an analog read can be done very fast, and that helps to save battery power.

The anemometer requires 12V or higher to operate, and the Vinduino station works with a single 3.8V Li ion battery.So we added an external DC/DC boost converter module. For this example, we used a low cost SMAKN 5V to 12V module, available at Amazon.

Below shows the simple wiring diagram for connecting the boost converter and anemometer.

To save battery power, the Vinduino system is kept in sleep mode until the RTC wakes it up. The Arduino then runs through the sensor measurements and sends the data via a LoRa radio modem to the Internet. We do not need to keep sensors powered on during the sleep period.The Vinduino board has a load switch chip that can switch battery power to the accessory connector J13. The load switch is controlled using Arduino digital pin 13 (ACC_EN). See Github for the full Vinduino schematic diagram. The anemometer electronics take about one second to start up and stabilize after power is switched on.Windspeed calibration is taken from Adafruit data that 0 m/sec = 0.4V out ,and 32.4 m/sec at 2V. Because there is a small temperature drift, the wind speed < 0.2 m/sec s reported as 0.

Here are some initial results. So far, we only had moderate wind speeds during testing.

Our goal for this season is to save 25% water and provide data for other growers to use for their irrigation decisions. ​By managing irrigation depth to percolate water only into the active root zone, we saved 50% irrigation water thus far this season vs. the two previous years.

We monitor soil moisture in and below the root zone, using our home-grown Vinduino system, to make sure that the vines have enough water to stay healthy and productive. After all we are growers!​Apart from damage from excessive heat that affected many vineyards in the area a few weeks ago, the vineyard looks good.​​See pictures....